• Aurore Gagnon

• Marie-Aurore-Lucienne Gagnon, simply known as Aurore Gagnon, was a Canadian girl who was a victim of child abuse. Wikipedia

  Born: May 31, 1909, Lotbinière, Quebec, Canada

           Died: February 12, 1920, Fortierville, Canada

Aurore Gagnon was the second of four children of Marie-Anne Caron and Télesphore Gagnon, a farmer. After Marie-Anne Caron was hospitalized with tuberculosis in 1916, Telesphore’s cousin’s widow, Marie-Anne Houde, a widow with six children, moved in with Télesphore Gagnon. On November 6, 1917, Aurore’s younger brother Joseph Gagnon died at the age of two under mysterious circumstances.

A week after the death of his wife in 1918, Télesphore Gagnon married Marie-Anne Houde. Although villagers were suspicious when two of her children subsequently died, there was no investigation. Their abuse of Aurore escalated (Télesphore beat her with an axe handle). In September 1919, the ten-year-old was hospitalized for more than a month at the “Hôtel-Dieu de Québec” due to a severe leg infection caused by a beating. Released back into her parents’ care, Aurore was beaten, by Marie-Anne Houde, until her death in 1920. The cause of death was said to be poison, not knowing if her death was because of infected wounds or if Aurore was poisoned to death.

Who Shares Responsibility for Aurore’s Death?

Aurore! The Mystery of the Martyred Child